BIND 10 starts development

The Internet Systems Consortium has announced that it has received enough support from sponsors to launch the BIND 10 project, to create a replacement name server for BIND 9. BIND 9 began its development in 1998 and is the most widely used DNS server software on the Internet. Among the sponsors are the UK's Nominet and Germany's DENIC.

The ISC wants to completely redevelop the server software for the domain name system. BIND 10 aims to incorporate current security techniques, such as DNSSEC, while being constructed as a modular system, so that it can work as a simple resolver for small LANs, or a full authoritative server for top level domains. Another possibility is the development of SQL database server connectivity as a module.

Another focus for the development process will be the robustness of the software. BIND 10 developers want to replace BIND 9's response to many errors, of logging and exiting, which has the potential to be exploited for Denial of Service attacks. The BIND 10 server should be able to reset itself and continue operations. The BIND 10 developers are also looking at being able to integrate BIND into back end systems, a closer coupling with DHCP and support of clustering.

According to DENIC the development phase for BIND 10 could be up to five years. Other registries participating in the development are AFNIC (France), CIRA (Canada), JPRS (Japan) and SIDN (Netherlands).

(djwm)